After one of bandmates quit the group, Valtsanis recorded the Abomination Virginborn demo as band's chief songwriter.

"[6] Blabbermouth gave the EP 7/10 and praised the songwriting, writing that "stands apart from the failures of disingenuous imitators by putting work into the song structures.

Varying tempos that run from the plodding and doomy to fast and vicious (with moments that approach raw black metal), there is plenty of meat on the bone here.

He concluded by arguing that "Graves of the Archangels is not only one of the best metal releases of the year, but quite possibly one of the best in recent memory.

[12] Following a period of inactivity, in April 2014 the band announced the title and artwork of their second-full-length album Promulgation of the Fall.

[14] Promulgation of the Fall received overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Sputnik Music, Exclaim!, Metal Injection, and was featured on a number of end-of-year lists.

wrote that "while Promulgation of the Fall can't take advantage of the element of surprise, burdened with the weight of expectation, the record is no less brilliant, displaying exquisite technical refinement.

The transitions on the album in particular are something to behold, such as the way that the title track opens like a wound and gives way to the massive, crawling "Serpentskin," or the way the ecstatic violence of "Nigredo" shudders, hunches and splits into "Schisma."

Located firmly in the liminal space between the abject and the sublime, the fascinatingly repulsive and the awfully beautiful, Promulgation of the Fall is a rare death metal accomplishment.

[2] Dead Congregation play a style of death metal with significant emphasis on atmosphere rather than speed or technicality, and has been described as "uncompromisingly brutal in a subsuming, freeing way.